Penn State’s targeted pre-arrival COVID-19 testing has identified 148 cases of the virus among students so far, the university announced on Friday.
Those students have been instructed to stay home and isolate for 10 days, until all symptoms have resolved and they have been cleared by a health professional to return to campus locations.
More than 17,000 students from areas with high-prevalence of the virus had completed the mandatory testing as of Thursday. With classes starting on Monday, 5,005 results are still pending. Students who were required to do a pre-arrival test must complete it and have a negative outcome shared with the university by Monday morning in order to return to campus and begin the fall semester. Those who do not complete the test will be subject to student discipline and may have their registration withdrawn.
About 24,000 students were selected for pre-arrival testing, along with another 6,000 faculty and staff, and were sent instructions on how to complete at-home spit testing through private laboratory Vault Health.
Dr. Kevin Black, interim dean of the Penn State College of Medicine, said in July that the pre-arrival testing ‘provides us the opportunity to begin the semester with a far lower number of asymptomatic but COVID positive individuals on campus, which is essential toward allowing the campuses to remain open throughout the semester.’
Penn State on Friday also launched its COVID-19 Dashboard for public reporting of student and employee testing result data and numbers of people in quarantine or isolation. Results from the mandated pre-arrival tests are not included because they were not in the campus community at the time and those who tested positive were told to stay home.
Current data is limited but shows at least two students tested positive between Aug. 14-20. Out of 283 tests performed, however, 200 are still pending. The bulk of the current data is comprised of testing of Penn State student-athletes by the athletic department, as well as two tests of symptomatic patients conducted by University Health Services.
Out of 11 employee tests, five were negative and six are pending.
Since Aug. 7, 520 students and 95 employees have been tested, with no other cases reported to date.
Penn State’s surveillance testing protocol will begin Monday, with 1% of campus populations tested daily as a metric for monitoring any spread of the virus. That data will be incorporated into the dashboard once results begin to be returned, as will results reported by private health care providers to UHS or Penn State Occupational Medicine.
‘The rationale behind daily surveillance testing of individuals without symptoms lies in its ability to monitor changes in disease prevalence and inform us regarding if and when additional mitigation steps are required prior to a possible outbreak occurring,’ Dr. Kevin Black, interim dean of the Penn State College of Medicine, said in July.
Surveillance testing will be a combination of random and risk-stratified surveillance, with an initial focus on those who were not tested pre-arrival.
Students and employees who learn, work or live on campus will be contacted by email and directed to schedule an appointment for free testing at one of several designated areas on campus. Students who do not participate will be referred to the Office of Student Conduct and employees to human resources.
Surveillance test results will be available within 48 hours, according to the university. Symptomatic testing is expected to take 24-48 hours.
The COVID-19 Dashboard will be updated weekly and surveillance testing results will begin to be incorporated at the end of the first week of classes.
“The information displayed on the dashboard will play a critical role in allowing our campus communities to monitor their own wellness and helping to keep our campuses safe,” Kelly Wolgast, director of Penn State’s COVID-19 Operations Control Center, said in a release. “If we see cases remaining flat or falling, we will know that our community is taking the appropriate steps to limit the spread of the virus. If we see cases rise, it’s important to share that information publicly so that our community can double down on masking and social distancing or take additional mitigation steps.”
Since the first was reported on March 20, Centre County has had 420 cases of COVID-19 and 11 deaths attributed to the virus.
